I've never used looping software to make music files before, but I need to start. So, what do people recommend? I run Windows, and from what I can tell it's hard to find one that can use real music notation. Having been a musician for a long time it would be a huge help to have that feature, I'd be willing to pay a premium for it. But even if that's not an option I'd like suggestions, since I can't seem to find a good pro/con argument for the various packages.
Composing software
- Thread starter Cassius
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j1clark@ucsd.edu
Veteran
I found an online program that allowed me to enter in music in standard notation, then it would generate a midi sequence. Back in the ancient days I had an Atari Program, and a Mac Program that would do the same, but I have not wanted to 'compose' for years, and it didn't seem like there were to many packages out there, nor 'open source' programs, for occasional/casual/tocheaptobuy use...
I've used my midi equipped keyboard to also 'input' music into Garage Band, but that's a Mac app...
Didn't find the online app I was thinking of, but here's a project that says it supports Windows... (Mac support looks like a hack and apparently requires X11... which means it's more of a Darwin port, than a Mac port...)
http://www.denemo.org/index.php/Main_Page
Last edited:
AndrewGentle
Well-known member
Yes, if I were you, I'd write the music in notation software like Finale, export a MIDI file and then import that into a program where you can connect proper synths and samplers to your MIDI channels. I've used Propellerhead's Reason before, it's great for that sort of thing.
Noiz2
Sound Ninja
The father of loop music is Acid and that is on Windows. But loop based music is using, well loops so it's not using notation. If you want some automation of parts and the ability to enter melodies and key changes etc. then you might want to look at "Band in a Box". That is probably the app the other poster was talking about. It started (I think) on Atari. That is where I first got it anyway. It's come a long way but computer generated only goes so far. We tend to use it for elevator music and party music in scenes where some genaricish jazz works well. For what I do I generally leave it on auto everything but you can have a fair amount of control if you want to.